An extra-terrestrial alien, capable of replicating any living form it
touches, infiltrates an isolated research base in the Antarctic, and
sows suspicion and terror among the men trapped there. Which of them is
still human, and which a perfect alien facsimile? John Carpenter's The
Thing, the second adaptation of John W. Campbell's 1938 novella Who
Goes There?, received overwhelmingly negative reviews on its release in
1982, but has since been acknowledged as a classic fusion of the science
fiction and horror genres. Now a regular fixture in lists of the
greatest movies of all time, it is acclaimed for its inspired and still
shocking practical special effects, its deftly sketched characters
brought to life by a superb cast, elegant widescreen cinematography,
ominous score, and a uniquely tense narrative packed with appropriately
ever-changing metaphors about the human condition.
Anne Billson's elegant and trenchant study, first published in 1997, was
one of the first publications to give the film its due as a modern
classic, hailing it as a landmark movie that brilliantly redefined
horror and science fiction conventions, and combined them with sly
humour, Lewis Carroll logic and disturbingly prescient metaphors for
many of the sociopolitical, scientific and medical upheavals of the past
three decades.
In her foreword to this new edition, Anne Billson reflects upon The
Thing's changing fortunes in the years since its release, its influence
on film-makers including Tarantino and del Toro, and its topicality in
an era of melting ice caps and with humanity besieged by a deadly
organism.
